After Roddy White amassed just 43 catches for 506 yards and a touchdown last season, the Falcons released their all-time leading receiver in March. The 34-year-old White, who remains a free agent, opened up about his 11th and final season in Atlanta to Dukes & Bell of WZGC-FM on Wednesday (link via Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk).
Regarding the Falcons’ coaching staff, White commented, “I just feel like coming into the season they had a role for me and it wasn’t told [to] me before the season started,” adding that he didn’t complain “because it wasn’t going to change anything.”
White is now content to be out of of a Falcons uniform, saying, “I would have went crazy if I had to go through that another year. When I got released, it wasn’t like I wasn’t feeling like terrible because I was like, ‘I can’t play football like that,’ because I was just miserable. I knew that a lot of times that we had opportunities to win games and I wasn’t put in that position to make that play and I felt we lost those games because I wasn’t put in that position to make that plays.”
Had coordinator Kyle Shanahan involved White in the offense more, the wideout believes the Falcons would have made the playoffs. They instead turned a 6-1 start into an 8-8 overall mark en route to a third straight year without a postseason berth.
More from the NFC:
- The Cowboys are worse from a talent standpoint without defensive end Greg Hardy, opine Dan Graziano, Phil Sheridan and John Keim of ESPN.com, though each writer notes that they might be a better team without his toxic presence in the fold. While Hardy was an off-field distraction and public relations nightmare for the Cowboys last season, the current free agent did total six of their paltry 31 sacks. With Hardy unlikely to return and fellow ends Randy Gregory and Demarcus Lawrence facing four-game suspensions, the Cowboys’ pass rush (or lack thereof) could continue weighing them down this year, Graziano contends.
- Whether Dirk Koetter can successfully transition from offensive coordinator to head coach as he takes over for the fired Lovie Smith is one of a handful of pertinent questions facing this year’s Buccaneers, writes Roy Cummings of Today’s Pigskin. While Koetter has been a successful coordinator in the pros – including his time atop Tampa Bay’s fifth-ranked offense last season – he hasn’t held a head coaching position since his tenure with Arizona State ended in 2006, notes Cummings. And while Koetter’s teams at ASU went a respectable 66-44, none finished higher than third in the conference formerly known as the Pac-10.
- In case you missed it, retired wideout Calvin Johnson revealed Wednesday that he would have had a harder time walking away if the Lions were more competitive.